


The Last Campaign Button

by lirin



Category: National Treasure (Movies), Tomorrowland (2015)
Genre: Crossover, Gen, crossovering treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-07
Updated: 2016-10-07
Packaged: 2018-08-20 01:22:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8231296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lirin/pseuds/lirin
Summary: A few days after the Declaration was saved and the Templar treasure discovered, Abigail returns to her office to retrieve some of her belongings.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TLvop](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TLvop/gifts).



It's a few days after their adventure is over and the Declaration is safe before Abigail gets the chance to go back to her office. She's on leave and her actions are under official investigation, but nobody at work wants to tell the woman who saved the Declaration of Independence to keep out. (Okay, so she's actually only one of several people who saved the Declaration, but she's not going to argue since she really does want to get into her office.)

She grabs all her notes from her earlier meeting with Ben and Riley, back when she thought they were complete idiots. Glancing around the room, she adds a few other notebooks to the stack, followed by the latest issue of _American Archivist _, her planner, and the good chocolate out of her desk drawer. Wouldn’t want that to go to waste if she’s not allowed back in her office for a while. On the way out the door, she spots her collection of George Washington's campaign buttons, complete now with the 1789 inaugural. With a smile, she puts the case on the top of the pile.__

“Thanks, see you soon,” she calls out to her assistant as she heads out the door and makes her way home.

‘Home’, for now, is a hotel where the FBI is totally _not_ keeping an eye on her and Ben and Riley—just as long as they don’t do anything the FBI doesn’t like. The FBI may appreciate their helping them catch Ian, and they appreciate the vast treasure they found even more, but they’re still not big on the Declaration’s having gone missing for more than a day. Abigail waves to the FBI agents who “just happen” to be hanging out in the lobby, and heads up to their gorgeous suite. (They may have gotten a bit of an advance on that finders’ fee.)

Ben looks up from his computer, where he’s writing up an account for the FBI of all his interactions with Ian Howe. “Were you able to get into your office okay?” he asks.

“No problem,” she says. He looks so earnest, staring at her like—like something. Like he cares about her. Like he finds her as interesting as all the puzzles he’s invested his life in. Like he thinks she’s valuable—and after the number of valuable and priceless things they’ve seen in the last few days, that’s saying something. How is this her life now? _Is_ it her life now? Abigail supposes the FBI will eventually let her go back to her regular job, and she could wave goodbye to Ben and Riley and let some other lucky archivist take care of cataloging the treasure, but somehow that doesn’t sound particularly appealing.

She continues on to her own room and sets her pile of office things down on the bed. Notebooks go on a chair to be dealt with later, planner too, chocolate—well, most of it goes in her purse but she unwraps one of the Chocolove 77% dark chocolate bars because why not. Then there’s the case of Washington campaign buttons. They were always special to her (that’s why she collected them, after all) but after all that’s happened, with Ben’s gift that was actually selfishly motivated but she doesn’t really mind, they seem even more meaningful. She reaches a finger out to touch the button, then catches herself. Wouldn’t want to get chocolate on it. Fortunately, due to her vocation, she always carries disposable gloves in her purse.

Gloves in place, she picks the 1789 inaugural button up. It brings back memories of the moment she received it in the mail, and the moment she thanked Ben for it at the gala, and the moment she realized he must have had a secret motivation for giving it to her. (This last realization had come an embarrassingly long amount of time—almost an hour—after she’d realized he’d stolen the Declaration, but in her defense she’d been a bit distracted by being sort of kidnapped by Ian and then immediately thereafter sort of kidnapped by Ben.) Abigail revels in the memories, in the way they all seem so different from the other side of nearly dying and discovering a priceless treasure trove. Then, ready to get back to work, she sets the button back in the case. It clinks. It’s not supposed to do that.

She pokes her gloved finger underneath the button’s slot. There’s something else metal in there, that certainly wasn’t there a few days ago. Abigail wiggles it free. It’s an orange and blue pin with a T on it. If she had to describe it, she’d say it was futuristic looking and retro at the same time. It certainly doesn’t fit in with George Washington’s medals, all bronze and silver and other monochrome metals. Abigail turns it over a few times. It doesn’t look like a bug or anything. Maybe it just got into her case by mistake. It doesn’t seem likely, but it’s not like she can come up with a better explanation. She drops it into her purse to ask her assistant if she knows where it came from next time she’s in the office.

As it happens, she will end up taking a year’s leave from her position at the Archives without ever going back into the office, so she never will get a chance to talk to her assistant. The pin will sit at the bottom of her purse without her realizing it for that year and more.

Eventually, one day she will be reading a journal while half listening to Ben gushing about his latest find in the Templar treasure and what affects it will have on the entire field of history study, and she’ll decide she really wants a piece of gum. Digging through her purse, she will accidentally grab on the pin, and find herself in a wheatfield. She’ll learn that people’s lives can change radically more than once in their lives, and that there are other places out there with histories of their own.

But today she doesn’t know any of this. The pin drops into her purse, she closes the flap, and wanders out to the living area, munching on her chocolate bar. “So what did you do today?” she asks Ben. “Anything other than writing?”

It’s just as well. Now is for the Templar treasure. There’s so much to learn about it, so much to study, so much to enjoy. Tomorrowland will wait until she has time for it. She just doesn’t know that it’s waiting.


End file.
